Gavin Lee is pleased to welcome Szabolcs Panyi, VSquare’s Budapest-based lead investigative editor in charge of Central European investigations and investigative journalist at Direkt36. His reporting into alleged ties between Hungary’s political leadership and Russian state actors triggered an unprecedented response: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán publicly accused him of espionage. According to Panyi, Orbán seeks to discredit independent journalism with false narratives of conspiracies against the government.